PEDC News

BP to expand its petrochemical presence in Korea

BP and Lotte have agreed a major expansion of production capacity at their joint venture Lotte BP Chemical Company Limited facility in Ulsan, South Korea

BP and Lotte have agreed a major expansion of production capacity at their joint venture Lotte BP Chemical Company Limited facility in Ulsan, South Korea.

The expansion is expected to add 100,000 tonnes a year (tpa) of acetic acid capacity by May 2019 through debottlenecking, and to double the current 200,000 tpa vinyl acetate monomer (VAM) capacity with the addition of a second VAM plant by the end of 2020. The new expansion will bring total production capacity of the site to over 1 million tpa.

Nigel Dunn, BP petrochemicals vice president for acetyls, said: “This project demonstrates our ability to execute low capital cost debottlenecks to meet customer needs. Building on the long-standing success of our partnership with Lotte, this expansion will allow us to continue to meet Korea’s growing demand for these key petrochemicals.”

Soo-Young Huh, vice chairman of Lotte, said: “We are pleased with the successful launch of this project, based on the track record of manufacturing excellence of Lotte BP and expect it to strengthen the partnership between BP and Lotte.”

The expected investment of $175 million will be funded by the joint venture.

Nigel Dunn, BP petrochemicals vice president for acetyls

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Notes to editors

Lotte BP Chemical Company Limited is a joint venture between BP 50.94% and Lotte 49.06%.

Following the expansion, acetic acid capacity will grow from 550,000tpa to 650,000tpa, and VAM capacity will grow from 200,000tpa to 400,000tpa.

Cautionary statement

In order to utilize the ‘safe harbor’ provisions of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 (the ‘PSLRA’), BP is providing the following cautionary statement. This press release contains certain forward-looking statements – that is, statements related to future, not past events and circumstances – which may relate to one or more of the financial condition, results of operations and businesses of BP and certain of the plans and objectives of BP with respect to these items. These statements are generally, but not always, identified by the use of words such as ‘will’, ‘expects’, ‘is expected to’, ‘aims’, ‘should’, ‘may’, ‘objective’, ‘is likely to’, ‘intends’, ‘believes’, ‘anticipates’, ‘plans’, ‘we see’ or similar expressions. Actual results may differ from those expressed in such statements, depending on a variety of factors including the risk factors set forth in our most recent Annual Report and Form 20-F under “Risk factors” and in any of our more recent public reports.

Our most recent Annual Report and Form 20-F and other period filings are available on our website at www.bp.com, or can be obtained from the SEC by calling 1-800-SEC-0330 or on its website at www.sec.gov.

The Pasargad Energy Development Company, PEDC, is owned by the Pasargad Financial Group, in which one of its distinctive shareholders is Pasargad Bank, the leading Iranian private bank with a continuous high growth rate.